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A Large Yellow Book
Legends of the Four Hammers We have all heard tales of the ancient heroes, from this world and the next. The Hellslayer. The Godfighter. The Dragon Hunter. The soothsayers tell us though they are dead and gone, one will come to us who will gather the scattered remains of the heroes' weapons and armor and forge 3 hammers and, from these, to create a 4th, greater than the rest. I come not to praise this but to warn against it. Woe to you who do not heed their tales! Woe to you who do not hear me now! Listen then... The Hellslayer. From the halls of Helheim iteself was heard gnashing and wailing. In the home of Helya and the kvaldir, the Hellslayer laid waste with her keenest blades. With axe and spear and courage and sacrifice, she stood atop a mound of death. Her children torn from her by the kvaldir. Her husbands torn and tortured. Her people slain and scattered, their very souls captured. Yet she did prevail. Was this, then, victory? Or was it failure but delayed and suffering amplified? In the end, her body failed her for the first and last time and Helya took her revenge. The Hellslayer's spear and sword were melted down in the cold forge. Her flesh was consumed at Helya's tabe. Hear my children, and make your choices as you will. The Godfighter. Not content under the heel of the all-knowing and the all-powerful. Born to hubris, son of righteousness, fierce and unflinching. Bringing the battle to those who did not fear death but learned to fear it before the Godfighter's will was spent. Bringing suffering to those who knew only how to force suffering upon others. In the end, he showed that mortal hands could rend what immortal wisdom and will had wrought. Did he free the mortals from shackles of their own making? Or, in giving fear to the gods, did he bring down the lash on those who followed after? Hear my children, and make your choices as you will. The Dragonhunter. Those that knew her in her time speak of one withdrawn, deep weariness and heavy of heart. Yet those who speak of her in the years since speak of a queen, certain and fearless, rallying all to her side to fight and, indeed, to win against the great serpents who long prayed upon them. We remember her deeds, we marvel at her courage, we know that she did what they say and that the serpents who ravaged the lands loomed large before her birth and were silent after her time. But we also here that after the battles, she wandered without a home until she died. Who then, was she? Leader and slayer of dragons? Wanderer weary and alone? Hear my children, and make your choices as you will. Heroes they were but dead they still are. They proved ideals that we call sacred and noble but suffered for it and brought that suffering upon their kin. What are we, who live in their shadows these long years later, to make of them and the one who is foretold? The one who will gather the remains of the 3 heroes' weapons and forge these hammers will take on the mantle of their lives but that mantle that was too heavy for greatest who have ever lived. It is foretold but should it be done? What wisdom do I not see? The Hammer of Forgotten Heroes is not a gift but a burden. The one who builds it must take the fate of all upon themselves and what mortal can stand under such a weight. Make your choices as you will.